Tag Archives: Smithsonian American Indian Heritage Month

A Working List of Native American Romance Authors

Hi friends, my apologies for being late on this! Happy Native American Heritage Month!
You may know I’ve been pretty “away from things” for the past year+ so this list hasn’t changed. As always I’m looking for more people to add – so if you know anyone please hit the comments, thank you!

Xio Axelrod
Maggie Blackbird
Marcella Bell
Christina Berry
Isobel Carr/Kalen Hughes
Pamela Clare
Louisa Cornell
Robin Covington
Kari Lynn Dell
Cynthia Eden
Yasmine Galenorn
T. J. Michaels
Danica Nava
V. S. Nelson
Alex Powell
Sharon Sala
Pamela Sanderson
Cynthia Leitich Smith (YA)
Dee Tenorio
Kristine Wyllys

A List of Native American Romance Authors

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Hi friends! November is National Native American Heritage Month!

If you’re new to A Little Bit Tart, A Little Bit Sweet (ALBTALBS) I used to have guests for the Smithsonian Heritage Months. Now, every year I post a list that I try to keep as updated as possible. I always hope to see this number growing, and more books to look into.

As always if you fall under this umbrella and want me to add you, or know someone who could/should be added, please let me know! (And on the flip side, if you want to be removed, let me know that as well.) … Also I know at least one of the authors is Canadian – but you know, North America. (I’m still not quite sure how to split or not split international authors …)

Native American/First Nations/Indigenous Romance Authors

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Hi friends! November is National Native American Heritage Month!

If you’re new to A Little Bit Tart, A Little Bit Sweet (ALBTALBS) I used to have guests. Now, every year I post a list. I’m so excited to have a number of new names to added this year! Most of them have been published they’re [simply] new to me – though there’s nothing simply about it. I’m thrilled to see this number growing, and more books to look into.

Xio Axelrod
Maggie Blackbird
Marcella Bell
Christina Berry
Isobel Carr/Kalen Hughes
Pamela Clare
Robin Covington
Kari Lynn Dell
Cynthia Eden
Yasmine Galenorn
T. J. Michaels
V. S. Nelson
Alex Powell
Sharon Sala
Pamela Sanderson
Cynthia Leitich Smith (YA)
Dee Tenorio
Kristine Wyllys

Native American/First Nations Romance Authors

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Hi friends! If you follow this blog [THANK YOU] – you’ll know this … well, that I’ve been largely absent this year. If you follow me on twitter … you might know there’s a lot going on. Anyway. More about that later. … Or never.

HOWEVER. I did want to do like this month >.< [SORRY that it’s really over] like the others – and this is definitely not an exhaustive list at all it’s simply who I know off the top of my head … and – so if you know of any other authors who should be on the list please let me know and I’ll add them! If you have no idea what I’m talking about … November is [Native American] Heritage Month.

Isobel Carr/Kalen Hughes
Pamela Clare
Cynthia Eden
Yasmine Galenorn
T. J. Michaels
V. S. Nelson
Alex Powell
Sharon Sala
Dee Tenorio

*And as always if you are on the list but don’t want to be, please let me know and I’ll remove you. Thanks!

SHM: Native American Heritage Month and “Behind the Scenes”

The Cherokee Nation says it has a right to a congressional delegate. Now it wants Congress to fulfill its promise.

I saw on twitter that a congressional representative had been selected – we’ll see what the legislative body does. I don’t know if it’s more prevalent, or my timeline, or what, but I’m seeing more and more from Native/First Nations people and I’m glad. The US (and various other countries) have a lot to apologize for, and make up for.

Compounded by the attitude of this current administration and probably the less I say here the better.

Anyway, I had at least one post lined up but the author has gone MIA – so if you or anyone would like to write a guest post for the month I’d be very very happy to have you. If you don’t know, the Smithsonian Heritage Months – Black History, Women’s History, Asian Pacific American Heritage, Pride, Latinx Heritage, and Native/First Nation Heritage Months are what we try to celebrate here at ALBTALBS. It used to be “limited” to USians who fall under the umbrella category, then to anyone who fell under the umbrella category, and last year or so I opened it to ANYONE who wanted to write a thing.

We do have a few Native American romance authors out there, and you can see guest posts from years past in the archives.

We could probably do with some tag clean up/better tagging but … 🤷🏻‍♀️ this is a money pit pet project, so you get what you see. 😛 Truly though – thanks for sticking with us <3

Oh! And – if you’re interested in more information and education, personally I’ve been checking tweets Rebecca Nagle’s timeline.

Happy #NativeAmericanHeritageMonth. Everyday this month I am sharing a history lesson with the hashtag #WeAreStillHere.

Today’s lesson is BLOOD QUANTUM.

— Rebecca Nagle (@rebeccanagle) November 1, 2019

Lastly if you or anyone would like to write a guest post for any of the Smithsonian Heritage Months in 2020, or if you’d like to step up and shout out own voices individuals in the community and run the celebrations for any month … please. Do – I’d love to have you. Let’s talk.

SNAHM Guest: Cynthia Eden

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Hi friends! Today we have the lovely Cynthia Eden guesting with us. As she says – November is winding down, and I know the rush is starting for holiday madness, but I hope we all take a minute and reflect. I love that Cynthia has such a rich background, but I think all of us can take a look back. I hope you’ll all chime in – especially since Cynthia is so beautiful and adorable. Seriously – you want to hate her cuz she’s basically so perfect but you can’t because she’s so nice. XD

Anyway, here is what Cynthia had to say.

Memories In A Box

Hi, everyone! It is such a pleasure to be here with you—a huge thanks to Limecello for inviting me over! When I was growing up, one of my very favorite things to do was to pull out the old box of pictures that my mom kept in the bottom of her closet (yes, these were the non-digital days!). In that magical box, my mother kept pictures of her relatives and my father’s relatives. They were grainy, faded photographs. The edges had turned nearly white because they had been touched so many times over the years. Continue reading →

Happy Day of Thanks!

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So I’ve realized that “Thanksgiving” is … not exactly the greatest most authentic holiday, not just because of the obvious consumerism, but also because it trivializes and appropriates Native American … well everything. There’s a blog post from the National Museum of the American Indian that says it much better, from someone who has much more right than I do to speak on the subject. It’s written by “Dennis W. Zotigh (Kiowa/San Juan Pueblo/Santee Dakota Indian) is a member of the Kiowa Gourd Clan and San Juan Pueblo Winter Clan and a descendeant of Sitting Bear and No Retreat, both principal war chiefs of the Kiowas. Dennis works as a writer and cultural specialist at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C..” I hope you’ll read what he wrote. I had to include his credentials because … you did you read them?!

Anyway – here’s my otherwise awful contribution. I wanted it to look like kidart – so … heh I think the words are much worse than the image. Regardless I hope you all had a lovely holiday, ate lots of delicious food, and get all the deals your heart hopes for. And if you have a bit extra to buy me a gift … well that’s just gravy. 😉

SNAHM Guest: Pamela Clare

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Hi friends! Time flies, yes? Today we have Pamela Clare is visiting with us today, and I’m so excited to have her share. I don’t know if you’ve ever read her I-Team stories, but if not, you really have to, and especially don’t skip book 1 – Extreme Exposure – which is one of my favorites. Anyway, what a timely post, and lovely yet painful – like so much of Native American history.

As a writer of Native descent, I’ve tried to cover Native issues in ways that make them accessible to the outside world. As a reporter, I spent years traveling back and forth to the Navajo and Lakota reservations covering a range of issues from forced relocations to the struggles of traditional native people to hold onto their culture and languages. As a fiction writer, I put my years of reporting on these topics into Naked Edge (I-Team #4). Continue reading →

SNAHM Guest: Dabney Grinnan

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Hi friends! So – it’s Smithsonian Native American Heritage Month and I’ve been extremely remiss in my posting I know, but we’re working on it. What I love about the Heritage Months is different voices and perspectives. Both what we might expect to be usual as well as the ~Unusual ones. I roped Dabney into writing a post for me based on a conversation we had about names – which led to this little tidbit about her. I hope you all give her a warm welcome.

When I was in kindergarten my grandmother, Pocahontas, came to my school and gave a presentation about our famous ancestor. I still have the newspaper article about my grandmother’s visit—it is, I suspect, the first time I was ever quoted by a reporter. When asked how I felt about “being descended” from the Indian princess, I shared I didn’t like it when my friends teased me about it and I was very glad I wasn’t named for her. Continue reading →

SAIHM Feature: Dee Tenorio

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Hello my friends! To close out my year of Smithsonian Heritage Month posts, we’ve got Dee Tenorio!!! You might think “haven’t we seen her before for this?” And yes! You have! Which is kinda cool to my mind, right? Extra double heritage! 😀 Please give Dee a warm welcome!

When Indians Feast…

I’m an Indian—Chumash, Apache and a wee bit of Maidu, though nowadays, everyone just calls me Native American—so as you can imagine, that makes Thanksgiving a little complicated. It’s hard to celebrate a day that is universally recognized as the day that sealed the fate of my people. As a kid, the story of saving the pilgrims was told less as a unity tale and more of a cautionary one: no good deed goes unpunished. You gotta be careful who you help and all that. It’s understandable, of course, that the elder Indians wanted us to learn from what was considered the mistakes of the past. There wasn’t many of us left and lets face it, historically Indians had a habit of believing what they were told and then getting burned for it…literally.

So, let’s go ahead and picture young Dee trying to reconcile her culture with today’s society. Teachers didn’t like it when I protested wearing a paper pilgrim hat in second grade. They were less happy that I felt making a paper headband with two feathers stapled on was a racial stereotype and that a girl wearing a full on headdress was not only wrong but bordering on blasphemous. No, I could not bring up the small pox or that the pilgrims eventually turned on the Indians who saved them. We were supposed to think on the importance of the one day they came together in peace and harmony.

But it wasn’t that simple for me. The whole time, the lessons in my head fought with what was in front of me. Thanksgiving is bad….juicy turkey. Thanksgiving is bad….cute turkey parade! Thanksgiving is bad….smells so goooooooooood! Thanksgiving is bad….two days off school!

Clearly, a compromise had to be made.

Thankfully, Mom had the answer…she always does. Thus, our family created “Turkey Day”. It’s not thanksgiving to us, it’s the day we eat a hell of a lot of inexpensive turkey, watch a ton of movies and pretty much don’t move except to get more pie. Sure, it’s pretty much what everyone else does, but the root of it doesn’t feel like betrayal to our people this way. It’s about being together, pooling our resources so all of us have more than enough to eat and laughing together for hours on end. It’s how my family celebrates that we’re still here. It’s also how we plot surviving Christmas, but that’s another story…

Thank you, Dee, for this post. I think it brings up a lot of issues people just gloss over, or don’t even know (remember?) – especially with how this holiday has turned to consumerism. A good reminder to think of others, and reflect.

It’s been a long year of many unplanned things. I started working on Smithsonian Heritage Month features in 2012, and I never imagined it’d turn out like this. I’m glad I went on this journey of exploration and I’m thankful you were all with me on it. Forward and such!

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